Friday, June 9, 2017

Pro-Trump Media Claims Vindication

CNN Graphic (Getty Image)

After a hearing in which former FBI Director James Comey accused the Trump administration of lying and defaming him, and said he'd orchestrated a leak in a bid to get a special counsel appointed, most of President Trump's biggest boosters in the media still found plenty of reasons to gloat.

According to CNN, Comey's testimony on Thursday before the Senate Intelligence Committee wasn't short on revelations and compelling details, but when it came to identifying the biggest takeaway, there was a distinct divide between most of the press and outlets on the right.

For former Fox News host Bill O'Reilly, a longtime Trump friend and one of the president's most vocal media defenders, the top headline from the hearing was actually one damning of Comey.

Clearly, Comey is no fan of Trump and the big bombshell is that Comey leaked bad stuff about Trump to The New York Times.

He was referring to Comey's disclosure that he shared a memo of his conversations with Trump with a friend, a professor at Columbia Law School, who in turn shared the contents of the documents with the New York Times.

The pro-Trump media wasted no time lacing into the paper of record -- which said it was looking into the matter -- for the supposed flop.

"NYT Story Debunked," a headline on the Drudge Report blared. "Told you NY Times is fake news!," far-right internet personality Mike Cernovich tweeted. "That's what fake news is," O'Reilly chimed in. Fox News host Sean Hannity, perhaps Trump's most loyal soldier on cable news, said on his radio show that Comey's testimony "busted" the Times, among other mainstream outlets, for "their fake news reporting."

Comey gave right-leaning media more ammo with an unflattering description of his interactions with Loretta Lynch, the attorney general under former President Obama.